Orange's record rise

Orange boss Hans Snook has plenty to talk about

UK mobile phone company Orange has unveiled a record rise in subscriber numbers for the three months to 30 June.

The firm, currently being bought by France Telecom, increased its customer numbers by 1.2 million.

That meant it had 7.2 million subscribers by the end of the second quarter - nearly two and a half times more than at the same time last year.

The vast majority of new customers are using pre-pay phones, where there are no monthly charges, with users buying airtime as they go.

More than 980,000 joined the Just Talk pre-pay service which was launched in October. That takes Orange's pre-pay base to more than 4.4 million.

Changing owners

Graham Howe, Orange's deputy chief executive, said: "We are securing our UK leadership position, reflecting our continual delivery of the highest quality network and customer service in the industry."

Orange's three UK rivals, BT Cellnet, Vodafone Airtouch and One2One, are due to release their latest subscriber figures later this week.

As of 30 March, Orange was the third largest of the four.

The figures come two months after France Telecom clinched a £27bn deal to buy Orange from Vodafone AirTouch, creating the second largest mobile phone company in Europe.

Vodafone owned Orange as a result of its £100bn takeover of the German telecoms company Mannesmann.

It was ordered to sell Orange to win approval from European regulators for the Mannesmann deal. It will retain the rest of the German company's telecoms business.